Field
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to a communication technology.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there are known mobile terminals capable of using short range wireless communication such as Near Field Communication (NFC), Infrared Data Association (IrDA), and TransferJet®. In the short range wireless communication, just bringing apparatuses close to each other allows transmission and reception of data between the apparatuses. In addition, there is a technology of executing a handover from such short range wireless communication to a different wireless communication method such as a wireless local area network (LAN) (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 series) and Bluetooth®.
In addition, there is known an apparatus that communicates information via short range wireless communication, when executing a handover from the short range wireless communication, as discusses in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-207069. The information includes communication parameters for a wireless communication method to be used after the handover, and capability information about applications executable by the apparatus.
In a handover from NFC, communication may be performed between two roles, i.e., a requester and a selector. The requester transmits a request message requesting another apparatus to execute a handover, and the selector performs selection as to whether the requested handover is executable.
In this case, when each of apparatuses communicating via the NFC transmits a request message as a requester, the apparatuses can perform avoiding processing for avoiding a conflict between the apparatuses in terms of their roles. Specifically, each of the apparatuses communicating via the NFC compares a predetermined value included in the received request message with a predetermined value included in the transmitted request message, and then allows the one corresponding to the smaller value to operate as a selector, so that the conflict can be avoided.
However, no response message is transmitted in response to the request message transmitted from the apparatus determined to be the selector by the avoiding processing. In other words, without receiving a response to the transmitted request message, the apparatus determined to be the selector by the avoiding processing is required to respond to the request message received from the other apparatus serving as a communication partner apparatus. Therefore, the apparatus determined to be the selector by the avoiding processing executes a handover requested by the communication partner apparatus, while whether communication based on a handover of its own request is executable is unclear. Accordingly, there are concerns such as an unintended increase in processing load and an occurrence of unexpected power consumption.